


Hollow Threats

by Jaykittykat



Series: You're a fool, I'm a tool [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: BACK AT IT AGAIN, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Julius lies, Martin is not nice, Mild Language, Summer and Andy are my favorites, this time with two new characters!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 04:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17636330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaykittykat/pseuds/Jaykittykat
Summary: Everything about the room was cold. Cold, clean, and clinical. It was so familiar. Julius had been in rooms like this far to many times and now he had dragged the only people he truly cared about into this mess. Summer and Andy were looking to him for guidance, hoping he had answers because he had been here so many times before. And it was cold. In truth, he should be giving them a thousand and one answers and hope they didn’t leave when they knew the whole story.





	Hollow Threats

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was "coughing up blood" but I really didn't want to cause major trauma to anyone just yet so I went with a messy nose bleed. I know it's fiction and I can fudge facts a little but to cough up blood usually means damage to the lungs or stomach. Anyway, I just didn't want to hurt a character that much before I do any world building.
> 
> Enjoy! :)

Everything about the room was cold. Cold, clean, and clinical. It was so familiar. Julius had been in rooms like this far too many times and now he had dragged the only people he truly cared about into this mess. Summer and Andy were looking to him for guidance, hoping he had answers because he had been here so many times before. And it was cold. In truth, he should be giving them a thousand and one answers and hope they didn’t leave when they knew the whole story. 

“You’ve been in places like this before, and have gotten out unharmed every time. Now you have our help, so it should be easy.” Summer really has a fitting name. She was so kind and warm and bright. Her big brown eyes held the light of the sun. Her golden curls were matted with blood.

Every time Julius escaped a place like this, he used the gifts the place had given him. He was never unharmed, he just healed before anyone saw. He had been shot, beaten, torn apart and locked away, but he always escaped. These people didn’t share his gifts, and they would never make it out.

The warden came in. Martin, he had once been called. He probably didn’t even remember having that name. Julius was the only one outside of the Company that knew this machine as Martin. He approached them, and Summer prepared for a fight. Andy stood up and sent a look that could kill. Julius stayed seated.

“Great to see you back, and this time you brought friends.” He almost looked amused, as if everything they did was a childish game.

“Let us go, you monster.” Summer was always so brave.

“We are peaceful protestors advocating for human rights and equal treatment. We’ve done no harm.” Andy was always so level-headed. She could stare down the barrel of a gun and make life-changing decisions.

They were protestors. They held signs and spoke truths. They went against the people that ran the world. In the eyes of the public, they were the black mark on the community. People like them slandered the good name of Live Well Co. and ruined lives. They tried to remove the fallacies people tell themselves to trust big businesses. Somehow, trying to expose people to reality made them the monsters.

Martin slapped Andy, and Summer lunged. She couldn’t take him down. It would take at least a few grown men, and this girl was attempting to harm him. She didn’t know he was a machine, though, a robot, an android, whatever you want to call it. She thought he was human, as did Andy. They thought he could be reasoned with. Julius stood up and caught Summer as Martin pushed her back. He hit her in the face. Hard. She spit up blood. 

Andy, thank goodness, was a doctor. She helped Summer sit down and lean against a wall. Martin felt satisfied with this little reminder that they were his prisoners, and left the room. Blood was pooling on the floor, and Summer was coughing up what she swallowed. 

“I’m gonna kick his ass next time he comes in here.”

“Let’s make sure your nose isn’t broken first.”

“S’not broken.”

“Summer, stop talking.” Finally, Julius said something. She’d listen to him without question. His friends were loyal to a fault, and it would certainly be their downfall. 

Summer spits out more blood. Her nose may not be broken but the clinical feel of the cold room only welcomes the blood. It’s messy, it’ll stain, and Summer can only spit out threats to the Warden under the blood. Her following an order didn’t last long. Andy is trying to get her to calm down, they still need to get out. 

“I’m gonna give that son of a bitch hell. He’s gonna get it. Isn’t that right, Julie?”

Julie. The nickname she had taken to using for him. Much better than Andy’s patient zero. She only used that when she was angry, though, so it’s less of a nickname and more of a very fitting insult. 

“I think he’s hell personified, but we should focus on getting out of here.”

“We were arrested for protesting. We did nothing wrong. We should not have to fight our way out and you know as well as I that what that man just did is a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

“Yes, Andy, twenty years ago. We barely remember a time before Live Well when society could actually function with opinions. Summer, lean forward.”

More blood pooled to the floor, but it was slowing down. Any was pinching her nose and telling her to spit out any blood in her mouth. There was a time when hurting people like this was wrong, but that was so long ago. Now the world was perfectly fine with handing everything over to a company that promised to let them “live well.” Governments outsourced to Live Well, agriculture relied on their scientific breakthroughs, and cultures could flourish in peace while Live Well did the hard work.

In concept, handing over all the difficult jobs sounded amazing. What happened couldn’t even be considered capitalism, because Live Well owned everything. People haven’t invented a word for this yet. They didn’t control just the market, distribute goods, determine prices. To keep up the fallacy that they were perfect, they kept secret the deals on the black market, the harmful and untested goods, the unfair and multiplied prices. They manufactured weaponry, illegally experimented on people, and lied about it to the public. 

“If we want to get out, we need to cooperate. They won’t do anything to damage their image, so they won’t keep us here. Our protests get a lot of publicity, so if Live Well wants a clean image they won’t hurt us.”

“I hope you are right.”

“So we just sit here and wait? Julius, this is crazy. They hit us. I’m bleeding. We should fight back.”

“Summer, we were arrested because there are people that hate Live Well just as much as us that fight with violence. We aren’t anarchists, and we will not fight our way out.”

Summer wasn’t happy with the answer, but she’d deal with it for now. She didn’t have a choice if The Warden was always so ruthless. They would sit and wait. Summer, Andy, Julius, and anyone else arrested would just be released into the Lost districts, and they would protest again and probably be put in Live Well’s custody only to be put back on the streets with a slap on the wrist and the warning, no, the threat of what will happen if they act out again.

**Author's Note:**

> I had fun with this. I enjoyed telling more about the world, and finally introducing Summer and Andy. I hope with the perspective of the stories so far it really shows what kind of people Martin and Julius are. Martin isn't human and that fact is the base of his entire personality. He isn't restricted to human morals, and he doesn't feel human emotions. He's cold and cruel, and Julius has a lot of secrets and lies to the people closest to him. He has questionable motives.
> 
> I've had these characters for a while but I probably won't fully flesh them out in these stories so if anyone has questions come ask me stuff on tumblr: https://jaykittykat.tumblr.com/


End file.
